Fig and Walnut Biscotti

I’m Italian and so I have eaten my fair share of biscotti. In fact, I probably ate more biscotti by the time I was 10 years old than most people eat in their entire lives. My grandma made weekly batches and would keep them in cookie jars and tins around the house. Anytime someone visited, she had something to put out with coffee. And we spent a lot of time at my Grandma’s. I never liked coffee, but I started dipping biscotti when I was a kid. It’s the only time coffee tastes good to me. And these biscotti? I think they’ve officially moved into #2 in terms of my favorite biscotti ever. First are ones made with anisette. Not anise – anisette. My grandfather used to put a shot of it in his coffee and biscotti flavored with anisette and then dunked in coffee? Sublime. Oh but these, these are my new favorite. And they are definitely worthy of packaging up and gifting for the holidays.

The biscotti dough is flavored with orange zest and anise seed, and copious amounts of chopped dried figs and walnuts are mixed in. I am an absolute fig nut. I love them. It’s the reason that cucidati are one of my favorite cookies and why I immediately jumped at a fig-almond cheesecake on a restaurant menu. Anytime I see a recipe with figs I immediately want to make it, and these biscotti were no exception. I also love these because they are a somewhat different texture than I’m used to. Most biscotti I make are toasted and crunchy; while these are also twice-baked, they retain a soft texture making them a little closer to an actual cookie.

If you like figs even a little, you will absolutely love the flavors in this recipe!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and anise seed. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until they're thick and pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the orange zest.

3. Fold the egg mixture into the flour mixture until combined. Fold in the figs and walnuts.

4. Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface and divide in two. With floured hands, shape into two logs, about 2½ inches wide and 8 to 10 inches long. Place on prepared baking sheet.

5. Bake until the dough is firm but gives slightly when pressed, about 25 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let cool 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

6. Cut each log on the diagonal into ½-inch-thick slices; places slices, cut side up, on sheet. Bake for 7 minutes, flip biscotti, and bake 7 minutes more. transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

57 comments on “Fig and Walnut Biscotti”

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Is there no butter or olive oil in this biscotti? I make quite a bit if biscotti and I’m in doubt that just the eggs will be enough to bind. I made a walnut fig biscotti last year and I thought it was from your site. I’ve been unable to find it. Thanks!

Thank you so much for this recipe. I came across it as a link in your e-mail today for Dark Chocolate Coconut Cups, coconut being a favorite of mine. I am going to try this recipe very soon, maybe for Christmas giving. But what it really does is bring back memories of my Sicilian father, we would share fig cookies together — something that seemed to be special for us since no one else in the family liked figs. So, thanks for the recipe and the warm memories. And, Buon Natale!

Wow! These are fabulous. I have been collecting biscotti recipes for years; I make a variety of them for Christmas presents. This recipe is now my favorite! The combination of the figs, walnuts and the coarse salt is divine. Thanks for sharing this. Yum yum.

Hi Shaima, I haven’t used fresh figs and obviously the texture and moisture content is very different in fresh figs, so the batter might end up a little too “wet”. If you try it, you may need to compensate with more flour. Let me know how it goes if you try it.

New to your blog and absolutely in love with it.I wanted to try these biscottis and also the chocolate pista once but have a confusion.Here you have mentioned to bake second time for 7 mins and then flipping and again b ake for another 7 mins.But in chocolate-pistachio biscotti you have said just bake the slices for 10-12 min.SO im confused whether to bake it twice for shorter time or once for longer time. Kindly advice want to bake them tomorrow. thanks

If you are baking the biscotti on a cooling rack in the oven (so air circulates underneath) you don’t need to stop to turn them over. However, if you are just using a baking sheet with parchment paper you will need to turn them over halfway through.

Thanks a lot for your reply Michelle, I made chocolate and pistachio biscottis along with these ones..both have come wonderful.And also made peanut biutter cookies they were also yummy .thanks once again…:-)))

i made this biscotti as soon as i got the email. i love love love figs, raisins, currants, dates and basically any dried fruit. the flavor is amazing. i like mine a little bit more crisp but my kids and boyfriend dont so i cooked them as directed and they came out nice and soft. when i get ready to eat one i toast it for a few minutes on teach side. oh my goodness, this biscotti is far from traditional and i love every bite of it. thanks for another great recipe.

I just made these as a change from my usual ones. I used tangerine rind as I had no oranges and, stupidly, grabbed the baking soda instead of the baking powder. However they turned out fine–I love the citrus and anise. Any ideas on soda vs powder? I’m thinking that the molasses in the brown sugar helped with the soda and prevented a disaster.

Hi Aajay – both are leavening agents but baking powder contains not only baking soda, but also cream of tartar and starch. Usually a recipe with baking soda reacts with the moisture and needs to be baked immediately to activate, while a recipe with baking powder isn’t as finicky. My guess is because the biscotti don’t get very high and are meant to be hard there wasn’t an issue with the accident.